Love at Last
by Marly Mischief
Summary: Theia Harper is the recently appointed Thieves Guild Guild Master, and to take a short break from the job she decides to go camping in the forest nearby so that she can reflect on her time in the guild.  BRYNJOLF/F!DRAGONBORN


It had been a week since the skeleton key had been return to the twilight sepulcher. Theia had been getting used to her new title as guild master of the Thieves guild, albeit reluctantly however. She had never wanted leadership, just some friends she supposed. And the other members of the Thieves Guild had proven to be that and more. They had become her family, which made her even happier.

She smiled softly into the camp fire in front of her as she remembered how she and Delvin had drunk mead and sung off-key songs in the ragged flagon one night. It had been fun and they had even managed to get Vekel and Dirge in on some of the fun, well, at least until Vex got grumpy. Then she and Delvin had gone to sipping their mead quietly and pouting. That had just been jest however; which had made a few other members chuckle at least.

There was also the night she and Sapphire had gone running around in the shadows in the middle of the night daring each other to steal this from that person or that from this person. That had been a fun night as well. When they got back to the Ragged Flagon in the morning they had stolen enough to put almost everyone in Riften in a bad mood. With the exception of Maven Black-Briar of course, however Theia assumed she was always in one anyway.

Theia's smile faded however when her thoughts came to the next person she had grown close to in the guild. Brynjolf. She straightened up a bit and brushed some stray strands of midnight black hair out of her face. Brynjolf had been the person to pick her up off the street and welcome her into the guild. He had approached her after she had walked past the small market center and to the blacksmith, somehow picked out that she had stolen before.

If it hadn't been for the fact that he had pegged her as a thief correctly, she wouldn't have even done the pickpocket job. She preferred to lurk into someone's home at night and steal from them while they slept. Sometimes she moved things around just to make them wonder if their house was haunted. She had done that back in Cyrodiil last. Some poor Breton in Chorrol, she broke into his house every night for two weeks just moving stuff around to make him suspect his house was haunted. It had been two of the most amusing weeks of her life.

After she had completed the job, he invited her to come to the guild. She had gotten through the Ratway fairly easy, seeing as she could work wonders with her ebony bow. She had taken them all out with a single headshot to the head. Now, she wasn't an assassin, she never had any desire to be one. She was simply used to happening upon bandits and the like when she would go hunting. When she finally made it to the Ragged Flagon, he had been impressed, and had welcomed her to the Thieves Guild.

He'd been around a lot after that whenever she was in the Cistern or the Ragged Flagon. He'd been there when she and Delvin had drunk merrily and sung on the table tops of the Ragged Flagon, cheering them on. He'd been there when she and Sapphire had returned triumphantly from the previous night's endeavors. And he'd even been there to tell her to get some rest when she was worn out from fighting a dragon on the way back from a job. Now though, he always seemed too busy to even give her the time of day.

She'd never admit it to anyone else, but she loved that nord. He'd snuck his way into her heart the way she would sneak into someone's house and stole her heart. There were days were she wished he would realize it and make a move or tell her he wasn't interested. Then there were days she had cursed it, like the day were she found out about him and Tonilia having something between them.

She groaned and put her face in her hands. She tried to forget that she had feelings for him _because_ of that. She had found out initially when Vekel had confronted Tonilia about it, who had denied the notion. She had trusted Tonilia to believe her then, but when she accidently caught them in the ratway on her way out, there was simply no way of denying it.

Reflecting on it now, she wondered if she believed Tonilia at first because she actually trusted her, or because she simply didn't want to believe it. She hugged her legs to her chest as she remembered walking through the ratway and catching Brynjolf and Tonilia half nude. Looking back on it now, she could at least find some humor in it, even though it still hurt her spirits a bit. Just standing there with an expression that screamed "by the divines, what is going on?" and them meeting her with an equally surprised expression. She chuckled silently as she remembered them watching them as she silently backed away.

That day she had chosen to take the ratway simply to give her more time to think about what the greybeards had taught her and what they had told her about the whole 'dragons coming back' bit. It had still been hard for her to believe that she was dragonborn, thus the longer route allowed her more time to think; or at least she had originally thought.

The next time she had seen Brynjolf he had been gently shaking her awake later that night.

"_Hey lass, ya awake yet?" a male voice whispered._

"_Hm?" she hummed, pulling her cheek off the pillow to look so that she could see who was waking her._

"_Uh, about earlier?" he started._

"_What about it?" she asked groggily._

"_Well, thanks for not telling Vekel as soon as you got here," he paused then, as if hesitant, "could you, possibly not tell anyone about it?"_

_Theia, still exhausted and tired from traveling and training with the greybeards let her cheek fall back on the pillow. "Promise," she said as her eyes slid shut._

"_Thanks Lass, I owe you a drink in the least," he said quickly. She felt him give her a quick peck on the cheek then move away from the bed she had fallen into._

Theia felt her heart sink as she felt a blush warm its way onto her cheeks. She had told herself countless times that she was just going to have to get over him, but she couldn't help but still blush at thoughts of him. She shook her head and chuckled, "What was the point of going camping to clear my head if it's not going to do that."

"Perhaps some mead will help with that," a voice sounded behind her and she quickly looked back in disbelief.

"Bryn, what are you doing here?" she asked as he lay on his side next to her, propping himself on his elbow.

"Sapphire said you went out to relax, and when I was talking to Vekel he said you hadn't taken any mead or ale with ya. So I thought, 'How can you relax without a good drink?' So I decided it was my duty to bring you something to warm your chest and flush your cheeks," he said, handing her the bottle of mead he had just taken a swig of, "besides, I owe ya don't I lass."

"Yeah, that's right, you do owe me a drink," she said with a small smile as she took her own swig from the bottle. She offered the bottle back to him and he declined it. After that they sat in silence, she didn't know what was going through his mind, but she found it a bit ironic how she had just been thinking about that incident and then he shows up with said drink.

"Theia, I-" she practically jumped when he spoke up, and he looked at her, confusion and worry etched on his face. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"You've never said my name before," she said still in disbelief at the way her name sounded coming from him. She would have never thought the sound of her own name would make her so happy in one small moment.

He chuckled, "ha. Guess not." There was another pause, and then Brynjolf sat up, discomfort and was it nervousness she sensed from the way he sat there? There was another pause as he sat there, then he glanced over to her from the corner of his eye. He held back a chuckle and shook his head, confusing her even more so.

"Theia I'm sorry," he said suddenly.

"For what?" she asked, confused, "You haven't done anything wrong."

"Well, from your perspective maybe, but from mine, I, well, I really messed up this time lass," he said.

"How's that?" she questioned as she took another sip of her drink, unsure of where he was going with the conversation.

"Well, If I had known before getting in that mess that you'd show up, I probably wouldn't have been in it to begin with," he said.

"Mess? You mean you and-"she started, but he cut her off.

"-Tonilia, yes," he said quietly.

"Well you two are still-" she said, but was again cut off by Brynjolf.

"Goodness no lass, I ended it when you caught us," he said, "maybe, that's why I'm apologizing."

"Why? Because I caught you two? You were gonna get caught anyway. Better it be me than Vekel, right?" she asked. She watched his face as he thought it over, unsure as to why he had to think about it at all, "right?"

"No," he said, and he looked up to her with uncharacteristically sad green eyes. Her heart immediately felt heavy and she looked into his green eyes with her deep ocean blues. "I would have rather it be anyone but you, even Vekel," he said quietly, "At least then this would be so difficult."

There was another pause, as Brynjolf seemed to prepare himself for something. But Theia had caught on, and she knew what he wanted to say. She waited for a moment, waiting to see if he would say it.

"Theia I-" he started, but was interrupted when her lips met his. She hadn't meant to interrupt him, but she hadn't wanted to wait any longer. She had waited quite a few months already, and now she had a chance at having what she'd secretly been wanting the entire time. "-love you," he continued after the kiss broke.

"I love you too," she replied quietly, a small smile spread on her lips as she said those words.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Hey ya'll! Thanks for reading! And sorry for the cheesy title, it was four in the morning when I titled it. Anyhow, This was originally going to have a mature scene with this, but I decided that I want to write more stuff with Theia in it before I jump into that stuff with her. I really liked writing this out, because it allowed me to develop her personality more. Also I'm not sure if I want to write out a full blown fan fiction with her and Brynjolf or if I just want to do prompts. I'm up for both, just can't decided what to do. So if you could help me out in your review (if you review, which I really hope you do.) Let me know what you would like to see. And if your up for seeing prompts, then give me a prompt or a theme! Because if it's decided to do Prompts then I want you, the reader's to decided what topic or prompt I should write. And in case you are wonder, Theia is an Imperial.

Well, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.


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